Clearwire Application to FCC for Larger Channels

[NMherron]

I remember reading back in May that Clearwire had a hearing scheduled for June 9th with the FCC to request broadcasting in 10x10mhz channels and/or 20x20mhz channels. The speed difference was astronomical and has download speeds increasing up to 80mb+ download in trials.

To me this was big news and was excited and surfing the news continuously on June 9th and on June 10th to get an update. I still have not read one peep anywhere about it. One of the articles said they thought the FCC would rule at the meeting.

However, even if the FCC would take 30 days, or however long, to make a ruling, you would think there would be an article out there somewhere talking about the story and how long it would take for a ruling. Anyone else out there hear anything?

Supposedly, this change can be made with just a software update on devices and minor tweaking at the tower. This is such big news for Sprint and Clearwire that I wish there was more coverage.

Source: FCC Considers Wider Channels For Clearwire. Considerable Boost In Speeds May Follow

 

[Linkchomp]

It won't matter much though without adequate coverage.

 

[NMherron]

It won't matter much though without adequate coverage.

True, true.

But it would make WiMax more competitive. There are so many WiMax haters out there. But WiMax isn't the issue, it's been the deployment. If deployed correctly, WiMax can be as good to the user as LTE. LTE does have some minor capacity advantages, like using spectrum more efficiently. But Sprint does not have a spectrum issue at 2.5Ghz. It has the largest nationwide contiguous block out of everyone. It can broadcast 40mhz down and 20 mhz up, if it wanted. No other carrier has such a large block.

If deployed correctly, 90% of Americans would already have WiMax coverage. They should have petitioned the FCC to use wider channels before deploying. So we would all be enjoying 40mb downloads and 10mb uploads across the country already. And no one would think LTE was better. Just another 4G option. Also, only using 2.5Ghz for their 4G is another problem. Use some of that down frequency spectrum...like Nextel's at 800/900mhz. Move Nextel to PTTviaCDMA already! Sheesh!

Oh, how different the world would be if I ran things!